The Better 4 You Meals Story

Founded In 2011 Better 4 You Meals (B4YM) is the direct product of local California school leaders listening to the voices of their very own students and parents who wanted “better” food at their schools. After years of unsuccessfully working with existing meal vendors to improve meals and student participation, our founders decided to become part of the solution and offer a new option for school meals.

Serving school districts, charter schools, private schools, summer camps, and after-school care providers, B4YM has helped drive major increases in school meal participation throughout California. In seven short years, B4YM has grown from an idea of social change to the one of the most impactful members of the California school meal community.

We have no predefined values on food that we try and impose on schools. We do not jump on the latest food craze and shock students with food they cannot pronounce or have never seen or heard of. Simply put, we are a young organization with a cultural blend of confidence and craziness to believe that our small social venture will one day positively impact the school meal experience of every student in California.

We know a hungry child cannot learn. We know that behavior issues increase when children are hungry. We know there is still a perceptual stigma to receiving “free” meals at school. We know that for some of your kids, the meals they receive at school may be the only nutritious meals they receive all day. And at B4YM, we cannot and will not be part of a society that accepts this as the norm. We believe that we can be a partner to schools all across California in helping to alleviate these issues and that starts with working with you.

School meals must be fresh, healthy, visually appealing, tasty, compliant, and most importantly, not something that is going to fill up trash cans. Together we can shake up the school meal world by bringing new comfort food style recipes, working with food makers manufacturers that have never made food for schools before, and consistently employing innovation and honest ideas in our work.

Providing school meals isn’t a complicated business, but it is an extremely difficult one. Your schools have strict budgets for the meal program and you’ve expressed that you want and need your kids to eat. We absolutely agree and are committed to spending all our time working with the diverse communities in your school to create meals, menus, and service models that you and your stakeholders can be proud to offer.

With decades of combined school operation and food service experience, Better 4 You Meals is uniquely positioned to meet the needs of your school and your students. Our team looks forward to speaking with you soon and wish you a year of many great meals!